Human rights lawyer Namal Rajapaksa accused the Colombo Crime Division of Sri Lanka Police had further harassed an alleged torture victim because a lawyer had tried to help him.
The relevant torture victim who was treated in Colombo national hospital from March 10 to 17 was a journalist called Sujeewa Gamage. The journalist claimed that he had been abducted at Meerigama and tortured by an unknown gang of four persons he suspected of being the defence personnel. He claimed that he was dropped near the Muslim cemetery in Dematagoda later. He was admitted into the hospital later.
Colombo Crime Division of Police took the person into the police station after he was discharged from the hospital. Attorney-at-law Namal Rajapaksa stated that police had harassed the journalist in front of his wife, and a statement had been recorded. Police later produced the journalist in the court for making a false complaint.
However, the journalist said after being released on bail by the court that he had made the so-called confession due to pressure from the police.
Lawyer Namal Rajapaksa said that the medical reports had claimed that some of the around eight injuries in the journalist’s body could not be self-afflicted. He further protested the Colombo Crime Division for not allowing him to visit the journalist and to look into his rights.
Police media spokesman Ajith Rohana said that journalist Sujeewa Gamage had used a mason’s trowel to burn himself. He produced a mason’s trowel but the journalist later rejected the allegation at a press conference. He accused that even his wife was mentally harassed by police. He demanded his family protected.
